15/11/2024
I´ve been writing about Marcha for some years now, but many new people enter groups every day, and my group Paranoia team too; so, I guess it´s about time giving it a bit of a context, as a welcome to you. And I´m going to begin with the Gaucho’s origin, this kind of people who live in southern South America, and who know no borders. Did you know that there´s a gaucho land in Brazil also? Yes, southern Brazil is part of the Pampas region, which spreads itself throughout Uruguay (all of it) and part of Argentina too. But, more than 400 years ago, when America was first discovered by Columbus, it was land of Indians and called “No Man´s Land”. Then came the Spanish and Portuguese, grounded the Mission and baptized some Indians. The races started to mix in, and the borders…there was no physical border, but treaties in Madrid and Lisbon had their say in to where Spanish and Portuguese (and Indians) should remain. There was war, new treaties, more war. Until the XIX century, even what is now Uruguay was part of Brazil, and vice-versa. Then we (state of Rio Grande do Sul) declared war on rest of Brazil, because we wanted to separate, be independent and not be paying heavy taxes. This civil war lasted 10 years, and ended up with a peace treaty, and we still belong to Brazil. Some say the peace only happened because Brazil needed our cavalry and horses…In the meantime, the gaucho was developing its way of life, mainly nomadic, going from estancia to estancia, from war to war, not taking notice of borders, and in the case of Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul, there are virtually none to the present day. A dry border with some marks on it, but a road which threads its way between the two countries, and sometimes you don´t know in which of them you are. But…what does it have to do with horses? Our war and peace was made on horseback, our work at the estancias is made on horseback, and it is said, that a gaucho without his horse is nothing, but on horseback he is the king of the “coxilhas”, the rolling hills of the Pampas. And the horse is no other than the Criollo horse, which has also a history of its own.
Today…we are at peace, with Brazil and the neighbours, but the mix of breeds continued…Italians, Germans, western Europe countries, Irish, and many others, they built the gaucho nation and its culture. And, like a blood flow to a heart, it must be pumped out and the culture spread to the world, with every gaucho that goes to live away from home.
